Friends of the Belgrade Theatre newsletter August 2015

FIRST LOOK…Behind The Scenes of ‘The Silver Sword’ This edition, we’re taking a trip behind the scenes of our brand new musical adaptation of Iain Seraillier’s ‘The Silver Sword’, a co-production between the Belgrade Theatre and Sell A Door, producer’s of last year’s swash-buckling stage adaptation of Kidnapped!

The Silver Sword is a heart-warming tale of three children whose determination to become a family again, takes them on an incredible adventure to find their father against all the odds. Set in the immediate aftermath of WWII, this heart-warming adventure tale follows the Polish Balicki children’s search for safety as Europe is divided up and displaced people return to their homelands.

During their adventures they cross paths with people from every nation as well as animals such as Jimpy the cockerel, Bistro the chimpanzee and Ludwig the dog.

Along the way, Ruth, Edek and Bronia meet 14 year old Jan – a boy who, years before, had met their father by chance and been given the family’s precious paper knife, affectionately known as the Silver Sword. Jan’s instructions are to show it to the children, should their paths cross, with the message that their father is still alive and headed for Switzerland.

Last week, we were lucky enough to enjoy a sneak peek of Lotte Collett’s ‘model box’ set design which takes its inspiration from the landscapes of Warsaw post-WWII. Lotte was also on hand to show us some of her original period costume designs for the show.You can view a selection of highlights from her visit in the gallery below.

Events

Tickets for the production are on sale now via the Belgrade Box Office at 024 7684 6715 or online at www.belgrade.co.uk where tickets are cheaper.

 Gala Night

 Page to Stage events

 Meet & Greet and Read Through – Mon 2 Nov, 11am Welcome the cast of Beauty & the Beast on their first day at the Belgrade and sit in on an all cast read through of the script.

Friday 11 Sept from 7pm

Join us at our annual fundraising event in support of the Belgrade Theatre (registered charity, 219163). There will be a pre-show discussion on the Main Stage with Artistic Director, Hamish Glen and Associate Director, Justine Themen about the work of the Belgrade on stage and in the community, followed by a performance of Crush. There will also be a post-show party in the foyer.

Tickets cost £29.25 – £37.50 and can be booked online at www.belgrade.co.uk or at Box Office (024 7655 3055)

 Dress Rehearsal – Tues 24 Nov, 7pm Attend the first half of the final dress rehearsal of Beauty & the Beast.  VIP Night – Fri 27 Nov, 7pm Join us on the VIP Night of Beauty & the Beast and see how the Panto has changed since the dress rehearsal and find out how it all ends.

Page to Stage costs £20 and can be booked at Box Office (024 7655 3055) or online at www.belgrade.co.uk

August

This Autumn marks the launch of an exciting new musical at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. Set in 1963, Crush is a toe-tapping romp that follows the rebellion of a liberal girls’ school against its draconian new headmistress. We caught up with the creative team behind it, Maureen Chadwick and Kath Gotts to find out more about the writing process behind this bold, fun and cheeky production.

When and why did you start writing Crush together?

I left Shed, which we sold to Warner Brothers that gave us the opportunity to set up our own theatre production company and go back to writing theatre stuff. There were quite a few projects piled up that weren’t telly that we wanted to do. Kath had been writing music for Bad Girls and other TV shows and of course, writing Bad Girls the Musical came out of working together on the television show.

Kath: Well, we were inspired by the girls’ stories that we enjoyed in our youth, you know, Mallory Towers and so forth and the St Trinians films – that whole genre really.

We were looking for source material for a romantic musical and it seemed so perfect!

Maureen: Yes, and as far as we know it hasn’t properly been done before. It’s also an all girl’s world and -

Maureen Chadwick

Kath: Apart from our boy totty Maureen: Oh yes - Yes, we’ve got a very cute boy in it. We’re setting this in 1963 in this school called Dame Dorothea Dosserdale’s School for Girls. The school was set up by a leading suffragette and her view was that education was the true gateway to emancipation. But in 1963, this new headmistress arrives called Miss Bleacher and she’s got an entirely opposite point of view. She wants to stand in the way of progress and turn the school back to Victorian values. So she is absolutely the headmistress from Hell!

Kath Gotts

Kath: All the free-thinking that the girls have celebrated is absolute anathema to Miss Bleacher. She’s there to stamp it all out.

Maureen: Originally the school was set up to welcome girls from all walks of life to fulfil their own dreams and learn to think for themselves, to choose whatever suited them best in life. Whereas what Miss Bleacher wants to do is to teach them to be the mothers of the future sons of England. And in fact those schoolgirl novels that we were talking about, that whole tradition was really very feminist originally - it was all about education having enormous importance to girls in order to liberate them from drudgery and servitude and to help them pursue their own ambitions. It’s all there in the books.

Do any of these ideas reflect your own experiences of being at school?

Kath: Well, we both went to all-girls schools, so yes that schoolgirl spirit, I remember it well, that is definitely part of what’s gone into that melting pot.

Maureen: Definitely. I mean our schools were day schools and the school in Crush is a boarding school with some day school girls. And it is that whole spirit of all for one and one for all that we celebrate in Crush. They have got rebellious spirits definitely, but when it comes to the crunch and they’re up against this tyrant, they all have to pull together to topple her.

This is your third project as part of Big Broad Productions. Can you tell us a little bit about the company, and what crossover if any there is between Crush and your past productions?

Maureen: My past was mainly in television, though I did do some theatre stuff before that completely took off. And then I was one of the co-founders of Shed Productions, so I was co-creator and lead writer on shows like Bad Girls, Footballer’s Wives and Waterloo Road. Then when

Kath: Crush we’ve realised is quite a good parallel with Bad Girls because Bad Girls is another all-female rulegoverned world in which everyone has to pull together to overthrow the tyrant and we’ve sort of got the same thing going on in Crush but with very different sorts of girls. We’ve now had over a hundred amateur productions of Bad Girls around the country and internationally - it’s almost bacchanalian, people love being all bad and wicked.

Whereas with this show, it’s all jolly hockey sticks - very different indeed.

Maureen: And the other musical that we wrote before Crush was called The Realness and that was about bad boys.

Kath: Yes, that was working with ex-offenders and people who had been through the care system. It was about someone getting out of prison. It was kind of urban, grimy - totally different. So I’ve done a complete flip since last autumn when we were doing that to suddenly getting back into ‘Oh Darling! Marvellous! Super!’

Can you remember your first high school crush?

Kath: Yes. Maureen: I may not wish to.

(Both laugh) Kath: Yes, a lot of heartache. I mean, that’s why we wanted to do this as a musical because the thing is, when you’re young those relationship passions, they seem so overwhelming and monumental but then it’s kind of slightly silly as well because you know you are going to get over it.

Well, I’m sure some people maybe don’t but that’s the kind of spirit we kind of try to capture in the musical, where everything is deeply intense.

But there is that sort of humour there and the sense that we can look back and think gosh, why was that so immense then because we all made it through.

And finally, can you sum up the show in 3 words?

Kath: Exuberant.

Maureen: Charming.

Kath: Cheeky.

Maureen: Yes, that’ll do.

(Both laugh) Crush makes its U.K premiere on the Belgrade Main Stage from Fri 4 – Sat 19 September. For tickets, call the Box Office on 024 7655 3055 or visit www.belgrade.co.uk where tickets are cheaper.

Meet the Team

Jean Wheldon

 What is your role at the Belgrade Theatre?

I am PA to the Executive Director – Joanna Reid.  How long have you worked here?

I started working at the Belgrade in October 2008.  How did you get into your job?

I had worked for over 30 years in financial services, as an administrative assistant, then as PA. When the company closed and I was made redundant, I was keen to transfer my skills to another industry that would offer a more interesting environment. Having a love of theatre, I jumped at the chance to apply for this role and was so pleased to be offered the position. It hasn’t let me down, it is interesting and varied but at the same time challenging, so it keeps me on my toes!  Have you ever experienced any real disasters?

I have certainly experienced potential disasters which I have fortunately, often with the help of colleagues, managed to avert. You have to learn from them and move on.  What are your favourite shows that you have seen at the Belgrade Theatre?

Recently, I enjoyed our productions of Propaganda Swing and Three Minute Heroes and the touring production of A View from The Bridge left me speechless. Earlier shows would have to include Sunshine on Leith, Beggar’s Opera and the challenging, but excellent, Fragile by Geoff Thompson.  What shows are you most looking forward to seeing in the new season?

We are busy working on Crush the Musical, which opens our season, so I am very much looking forward to seeing that. I am also a bit of a Judy Garland fan so End of the Rainbow appeals to me. I would also have to include Beauty & the Beast, Vampomime and of course the children’s shows which my granddaughter will appreciate this year.

Spot a Star in the Cafebar

On the first night of a week-long tour the Theatre’s management team host a drinks reception for the cast and crew of the show in the Cafébar.

Why not stay for a drink after the show and see if you can spot a star.  4 Sept – Crush  26 Sept – Silver Sword  29 Sept – The Importance of Being Earnest  6 Oct – Handbagged  13 Oct – The Smallest Show on Earth  3 Nov – Flare Path  9 Nov – The Mousetrap

Friends Reviews We want to hear from you. If you attended a show at the Belgrade recently and want to release your inner theatre critic please send your reviews to friends@belgrade.co.uk. *We cannot guarantee that your review will be published.We will publish positive and negative reviews in line with our policy to be Open, Honest and Down to Earth.

B

elgrade ulletin

 Community & Education Company From 8 – 19 July we hosted the Inspiring Curiosity: In Our Own Words Festival. Our youth and community groups made 6 new productions for the Festival about a range of subjects from youth protest, to the education system, the treat of radicalisation, to first love.

The Festival culminated in a vibrant weekend of performances from our participants as well as 7 other Visiting Companies from around the country, alongside workshops and other activities for young people to take part in.

Other events later in the year will include: the Inspiring Curiosity Conference, a 2-day conference exploring the relationship between theatre and learning; and the Inspiring Curiosity October Festival, 2 weeks of professional theatre for young people in schools and at the Belgrade.  Front of House The Front of House team has been kept busy over the past couple of months. We have been all over the Midlands with Belgrade Unplugged which proved to be a great success, as well as welcoming several large dance groups into the theatre. We are currently in the midst of the TiE Festival and shall begin to look at the Operational planning for the TiE Conference in October which will follow on from this.

We are now approaching our ‘dark period’ which will give us chance to start preparations for the Autumn/Winter season. During this time, we will start to contact the Visiting Companies for the next season, book dressing rooms and, dare we say it, start looking towards the Pantomime.

A busy time ahead for the Front of House team!  Development Thank you to all of the Friends who attended Belgrade Unplugged in June, it was a great success and enjoyed by all. At the moment the Team is focusing on Gala Night and gearing up for our Christmas Appeal, Making Memories.

We also say congratulations to Lexy Rooney, who is getting married in September. In her absence the Friends scheme will be administered by Helen Hotchkiss, Head of Development. Helen can be reached on 024 7684 6728 or via friends@belgrade.co.uk  Production With a varied programme of shows this season it is an interesting With rehearsals due to start for Crush, The Musical, the workshop team are creating some vibrant pop art to take us back to the 1960s. In contract to this, work is also underway in creating 1940s Poland for The Silver Sword. In the technical department, the team will be spending the summer making sure that the stage, lights and sound equipment are all maintained ready for the new season.  Communications It’s been a busy few months in the Communications Department with our Autumn/Winter season brochure newly signed off and the countdown to our new musical co-production, Crush, now underway.

Earlier this month, the team donned their hockey sticks and school colours for a VIP launch event at the nearby Bablake School which featured special guest appearances from the show’s creators, Maureen Chadwick and Kath Gotts plus our terrific trio of teachers, Sara Crowe, Rosemary Ashe and Kirsty Malpass.

With festival season in full swing, it was time to hit the road for a full weekend of promotions at the Godiva Festival & Coventry’s first ever ‘Pride’ at Fargo Village. Meanwhile, continuing our 2015 TiE Anniversary year celebrations.

Building upon the success of Give the Gift of Theatre, we are delighted to introduce our Making Memories appeal – helping to bring happiness to families in need this Christmas.

Once again, we are partnering with Coventry Foodbank to provide 400 tickets to our pantomime – offering families quality time together and the opportunity to reduce the sense of isolation that some people feel at Christmas.

We would like to send a massive THANK YOU to Producers’ Circle member, William McEvoy, who recently donated £500 to kick start the appeal. His generous donation was made up of £2 coins he had been collecting since January and will support 12 families.

We are asking people to consider following William’s lead and collecting £2 coins in the run up to Christmas and donating the sum to our Making Memories appeal.

Why Making Memories is important: “When our family became homeless, the pantomime was a great opportunity for us to enjoy some quality family time together” A memory from a past recipient.

Friendly Hello!

We would like to say a friendly hello and welcome to new or renewed Friends of the Belgrade Theatre:

             

Mr Adam Chapman (Actors’ Circle) Mr Richard Brotherton (Actors’ Circle) Mr John Rattigan (Actors’ Circle) Mr J B Auld (Actors’ Circle) Mrs Carol Vale (Actors’ Circle) Mr Paul Hayes (Actors’ Circle) Mr Colin Tysall (Actors’ Circle) Mrs Lynn Hills (Actors’ Circle) Margaret Scott (Actors’ Circle) Marion Newell (Actors’ Circle) Wade & Beverley Bostock (Producers’ Circle) David & Sandra Burbidge (Producers’ Circle) Michael & Lindsey McDonagh (Producers’ Circle) John McGuigan (Producers’ Circle)

Stage Bites

You may have noticed that at the start of July we welcomed a new catering partner, Host.

Over the summer and upcoming months our catering facilities will undergo a few changes, however they will continue to offer the 10% discount to Friends of the Belgrade Theatre – just make sure that you show catering staff your membership card to obtain your discount.

Keep an eye on our website for further details on menus, and start planning your visit to enjoy a delicious meal pre-show meal.